Memorializing soldiers who paid the ultimate sacrifice (17 photos)

The names of slain soldiers Pte. David Byers, Pte. Andrew Miller, Cpl. Gilles Desmarais and Cpl. Glenn Arnold are now etched in stone at Memorial Park.

Family and friends of the fallen soldiers joined Mayor Brian Bigger and representatives from local legions at a commemoration ceremony on Wednesday, where the names of all four men were carved into the war memorial in the park.

It was an emotional time for the four mothers as they laid wreaths at the foot of the memorial, some reaching out and touching their son's name as tears filled their eyes.

Sitting in the front row as guests of honour were Wendy Miller, mother to Pte. Andrew Miller, and his father, Raymond Ealdama, Carmen Desmarais-Meilleur and her son, Denis Desmarais, the mother and brother of Cpl. Desmarais, George and Leona Arnold, parents to Cpl. Glenn Arnold, and John and Jane Byers, parents to Pte. David Byers.

Miller was killed on June 26, 2010, southwest of Kandahar City in Afghanistan, along with Master Cpl. Kristal Giesebrecht. Both were medics and were en route with other soldiers to help an Afghan family who had found a bomb strapped to their door.

While on the way, the armoured vehicle the two were travelling in struck an improvised explosive device (IED). A third soldier was injured in the explosion and taken to a Kandahar City hospital where he was last reported in stable condition.

Cpl. Byers and Arnold were two of four Canadian soldiers killed by a suicide bomber on a bicycle in southern Afghanistan in September 2006 while the troops were conducting a security patrol, according to the Canadian military.

Byers was a member of the 2nd Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry based at Shilo, Man. Arnold was a medic with 2 Field Ambulance at Canadian Forces Base Petawawa.

Desmarais was a peacekeeper who died when he was accidentally electrocuted while working on a storage shed in Bosnia in September 1998.